Preoperative Chemoradiation Followed by Chemotherapy for Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer

The current standard treatment of locally advanced rectal cancer (clinical stage II or III) is preoperative radiation with chemotherapy (CRT) followed by surgery. But this approach can be suboptimal for patients with high risk features (more deeply-seated tumor or many regional lymph nodes involved)that are associated with recurrence. This study test a hypothesis that CRT followed by chemotherapy before surgery can improve efficacy of preoperative treatment.